first drafts | Meredith Mansfield, Author

Posts Tagged ‘first drafts’

Almost Done

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, marketing, Multiple Projects, revisions, sequels, series, writing on August 12, 2015| Leave a Comment »

I am just shy of 80% done with the polishing edit on BEYOND THE PROPHECY (which is up for pre-order at only $0.99.)

After I upload the final version, that’s not the end, of course. I still have to check the upload. And format the print version. And do something more about getting the word out.

And then I can go back to the first draft of the fourth and final book of the series.

Meanwhile, when I start to go cross-eyed from the edits, I’ve been letting my creativity out in planning an update to the cover of FIRE AND EARTH and starting to think about the cover for that fourth book in the DUAL MAGICS series.

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New Scenes During Revisions

Posted in writing, tagged characters, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, revisions, sequels, series, writing on July 12, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Revisions on BEYOND THE PROPHECY are moving along at a comfortable pace–now.

I was worried about staying on schedule last week. That was because I had to add basically a whole new scene. And it was slow going.

Adding a scene at this stage is like going back to the first draft. But, doing it while my editor brain is still engaged–which means I question every sentence. A normal first draft can be allowed to be bad. I can skip things like descriptions or dialog tags, because I’m going to go through several more drafts to fix those things. That’s no longer true at this stage. There’ll hopefully be only one more pass–the polishing edit. So this scene had to be close to final-draft perfect on the first pass. It was a lot of pressure and slow going.

I got it done, though. I may tweak it a bit before the polishing edit, but it’s basically there. And I think it strengthens the story. The action is more true to the character.

Most of the revisions from this point will be less dramatic. Right now, I’m averaging slightly over two chapters a day, which will comfortably finish this draft by the end of the month. On target again.

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Adding and Subtracting

Posted in writing, tagged critiques, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, revisions, rewrites, sequels, series, writing on July 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »

BEYOND THE PROPHECY revisions are under way–not as far under way as I’d hoped, but that’s the way these things go sometimes.

Hopefully, I’ll make it up later and stay on schedule. I’d like to complete the first pass this month.

Two scenes have been deleted. They weren’t doing much, really and the nuggets of information that were there could be moved (and told, not shown) elsewhere. In some ways, that’s the easy part.

Right now, I’m in the middle of revising/rewriting a scene that worked but could be stronger, as one of my critique partners suggested. I’m getting my main character more involved in the action, which is always good. On the other hand, this is almost like going back to a first draft, so it does slow the revision process down. The story overall will be stronger for it, though.

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In Transition

Posted in writing, tagged Cover Art, critiques, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Goals, Multiple Projects, revisions, sequels, series, writing on July 2, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Well, that what happens after school gets out for the summer, disrupting my routine. I completely lost track and forgot to blog yesterday. Catching up today.

So, I’m now in the mode of switching from starting the first draft of DUAL MAGICS BOOK 4 (title to be determined) to making the final revisions on BEYOND THE PROPHECY (Book 3).

I’m currently making revision notes, chapter by chapter, based on the three critiques I’ve received from my beta readers. (One critique is still out, but she told me in the beginning that she’d need extra time.) But, if I’m going to have this ready to publish in September, I’ve got to get started.

A lot of the revisions will be relatively small. A little more context or background in a few places. Some things may get shifted around.

And not throwing out so many names all at once. That’s a big one right at the beginning. Starting sequels is hard partly because I already have all these characters. They’ve all been introduced in the earlier books. But that doesn’t mean I can name eight of them right at the beginning without expecting to confuse the reader. Yet, I have to identify them before the action starts, which is in Chapter 1. Well, I’ll work that out, too.

There are a few larger issues I’ll have to work on throughout the manuscript, too. Like doing a better job of centering the story on the main conflict.

Then there’s the blurb. That’s really been fighting me this time around. I’ll get it eventually.

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New Covers

Posted in writing, tagged Cover Art, critiques, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Goals, Learning, marketing, Multiple Projects, revisions, sequels, series, writing on June 28, 2015| Leave a Comment »

I have a new cover for “Becoming Lioness” now. It looks more like it belongs with the series and might even give a reader the idea that it’s a fantasy story.

For reference, the old cover looked like this:

“Modgud Gold” has proven to be more difficult. But, thanks to some helpful internet friends, I think I finally have a direction to go.

Meanwhile, progress on the still-untitled Book 4 of the DUAL MAGICS series continues. Though, by next week I expect I’ll be ready to set it aside for a short time while I take care of revisions and polishing edits on BEYOND THE PROPHECY so I can publish that in September.

And, I’ve started writing out a concept for another story. Like I don’t already have several in the pipeline. But you’ve got to write down the ideas when they come to you or risk losing them. And nobody wants that.

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Plotting

Posted in writing, tagged critiques, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, inspiration, Multiple Projects, revisions, sequels, series, writing on June 21, 2015| Leave a Comment »

We all know by now that I’m a discovery writer. (Unless this is your first time visiting my blog. In which case, welcome.)

But, however I write them, all stories have plots. Sometimes, I just arrive at the plot backwards. Sometimes not.

I’ve also said that the only time I really get detailed plot ideas is when I’m actually writing–just in the quiet times when I step away from writing for a few minutes.

Well, last Friday seems to have been a day for that. I didn’t actually get much writing done on Friday, but I did get solutions to three plot issues–two for Book 4 of the DUAL MAGICS series and one for the final revisions to BEYOND THE PROPHECY (Book 3).

For BEYOND THE PROPHECY, it was an issue raised by one of the two critiques I’ve gotten back so far. I figured out how to refocus certain elements of the story to help the plot be more centered. So that’s good.

The second idea was about something in the first chapter of Book 4. It’s a minor thing, really. A bit of background. But I realized that it’s probably not very accurate. I’m not sure exactly what I’ll do with that bit, yet. I don’t go backwards in the first draft unless it’s something really major. I make notes of things I need to look at in the second draft. I’ve made such a note and I’m sure I’ll find something that will work better by the time I get to it.

The big plot idea, though, was about the climax of Book 4. See, I know what the climax is (unless another, better idea comes along first–which I doubt.) But for what I have planned to work out, my main characters have to be forced to do something that they wouldn’t otherwise choose to do. And the logical way for that to happen is for the antagonists to do something that implies knowledge of one of the two kinds of magic. Or, at least, the basis of that magic. The kind of magic that the antagonists don’t know about. Hmm. That’s a conundrum. But now I know how they’re going to learn just enough for them to do what I want them to.

What makes a discovery writer is that we’re willing to jump into the story anyway, even with a gaping plot hole like that, and have faith that we’ll figure it out by the time we get there. Moments like Friday are what feed that faith.

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Titles

Posted in writing, tagged fantasy, first drafts, sequels, series, titles, writing on June 14, 2015| 4 Comments »

Some people seem to have a gift for titles. I’m not one of them. I struggle to find appropriate titles.

In the DUAL MAGICS series so far:

THE SHAMAN’S CURSE fits that story well. The shaman tries to curse Vatar, but equally, the shaman’s obsession with vengeance curses him.

THE VOICE OF PROPHECY was originally THE IGNORED PROPHECY. Both fit the story pretty well. The new title hopefully does a better job of telling the reader what kind of story they’re going to get.

BEYOND THE PROPHECY is just so-so. The characters at least feel that the prophecy is now behind them (when, really, they’ve just survived the triggering event.) I suppose I have time for inspiration to strike. It wouldn’t be too hard to change the cover.

The last book in the series is right now known by the highly original title of . . . Book 4. Ideas I’ve had so far:

The Price of Magic
Magic’s Price
Magic’s Warrior
Warrior of Magic
Paladin (or Champion) of Magic
War of Magic
War Magic
Magic Paladin

None of them are so far striking me as anything close to perfect. I’d like to have at least a best guess by the time I publish BEYOND THE PROPHECY in (hopefully) September so I can use it for the teaser excerpt. We’ll see.

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Why I’m a (Modified) Discovery Writer

Posted in writing, tagged discovery writer, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, inspiration, pantser, sequels, series, writing on June 10, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Sometimes I’d really like to be able to outline a story and know exactly how it goes. But that’s just not the way it works for me.

I do at least map out the high (and low) points of a novel before I start. (Though they have been known to change as I go, too.) But I could sit and stare at the screen for days waiting for the inspiration to know how to fill in the very wide blank spaces that leaves. It just would never come.

The only time those ideas come to me is when I’m actually writing. Well, not necessarily when I have my fingers on the keyboard. But, you know, when I’ve gotten up for a little and I’m walking the dogs or (infrequently) cleaning the house. That’s when I get the ideas for how to get from point A to point B. But only if, when I sit back down, I’m actually writing the story.

And, anyway, sometimes a story will just take a left turn and go somewhere else instead. And that’s often better than what I’d planned.

Not going to happen in the last book of the DUAL MAGIC series. (At least, I don’t think so.) But that is exactly what happened in DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING.

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Backing Up

Posted in writing, tagged conflict, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Pitches, sequels, series, writing on June 3, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Not in the data protection sense, although I do that, too.

No, this time I mean backing up as in going back a little for the start of this story (Book 4, currently untitled, of the Dual Magics series). I said in my last post that beginnings are hard. And they are–until you find the right place to enter the story.

In my first stories, I more often had to cut from the beginning, because I’d started the story too early. A couple of times now I’ve had to back up and put the beginning a little earlier. I guess that’s a kind of progress.

Anyway, I backed up to, among other things, start with a little more urgency–and a tiny bit of action. I like this beginning much better. Of course, I won’t really know if it’s the right place to start until I write THE END at the bottom of the first draft.

Meanwhile, I’m also trying to iron out the blurb for Book 3, BEYOND THE PROPHECY, which is much harder.

Blurbs, pitches, and queries are an art form unto themselves. And they take a lot of revision to get right–or close to right.

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Plotting for Pantsers

Posted in writing, tagged conflict, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, sequels, series, writing on May 26, 2015| Leave a Comment »

I’m a discovery writer (or pantser), but a modified one. Why modified? Because once, when I was fairly new to writing, I actually managed to write over 100,000 words on a novel and, as I was writing the final scene, I looked up and said to myself, “But it’s not a story.” I knew intuitively that it wasn’t a story, but it took me a lot longer to figure out why. (By the way, once I finally figured it out and learned a few other matters of craft, that not-quite-a story became THE VOICE OF PROPHECY.)

So, now I try to figure out a few sign posts along the way before plunging in.

Obviously, I need to know where the story begins. By which I mean not necessarily the opening scene, which can change. The inciting incident is usually pretty stable, though, and that’s what I need to know.

A few of the major plot points along the way is nice. I do make notes of or even sketch out a few scenes that come to me, but I’ve always done that (even in that draft that wasn’t really a story). Some of those will make it into the final version intact. Some will have to be changed to fit. And some will have to be left out or cut.

I like to know the climax. Of course, I’ve known the climax the DUAL MAGICS series was headed for for a long time, now, so that’s not a problem.

Sometimes I’ll even write out what I call a proto synopsis, hitting just the high (or low) points of the story.

But the main thing I absolutely have to know is the central conflict. Without that, it’s just a string of events. That’s the reason that that very first version of THE VOICE OF PROPHECY (then known as THE IGNORED PROPHECY) wasn’t a story. The germ of the central conflict was there, but it just wasn’t clear enough to be the backbone of the story.

I’ve been organizing all of this because, very soon now, I’m going to be starting the first draft of Book 4, the final book of the DUAL MAGICS series, tentatively titled WARRIOR OF MAGIC. Can barely wait.

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